I composed a post in Firefox all about how I have this awesome audition this afternoon. Then, when I tried to publish it, Firefox hung for ten minutes before it crashed. I've been spoiled by stability, so I didn't do the ctl-c that was so pretty much automatic a few years ago... so here's the tl...

Here are three Star Trek-themed things that have come up recently. All of them made me laugh so hard I pooped a little, so they need to be preserved here for the ages. First, from Jimmy James, Inc: For the record, Wesley's dance crew was called Jiffy and da Popz. Next: Last night, Paul of Pa...

Though I can't claim to be a trolldad I am a trolluncle, and I ask you, what exactly is the point of interacting with the upcoming generations who will define the future if you can't be an obnoxious asshole fucking with their heads?
I'm hoping there's still time to become a trolldad, and I say to you, fine work sir! Fine work indeed.

Ryan's home for the holidays, before he moves far, far away for his new job (hey, check out my son! He graduated college last week, and he starts a great job in two weeks! Go Ryan!!) The first night he was home, I told him that the warm covers for the bed he's sleeping on were in the dryer, so...

I think you have the presence and delivery to keep doing vlog style work. Personally I was kind of entranced by the tour. I immediately went to see how many quarters I had from before 1987. Oban is a superb single malt, crafted in the ancient kingdom of Dal Raida where Somerled MacGillibride only agreed to become King of Scots after a salmon leapt to swallow his hook and....what? Anybody? fuck...
I'm a Laphroig man myself
As far as would I be willing to pay I do come from a bit of the "information wants to be free" heady days when the internet had no pictures and you couldn't buy anything (not that it lasted long) but in the end that is your decision and I'll respect it. I just think there's plenty of cache and economic benefit from you producing it without regard to direct compensation. I mean, I'm already thinking about giving you some quarters. Please don't misunderstand me as saying that this is somehow an ethical issue, or that I don't recognize that your time is valuable, but you already are a significant cultural figure and I firmly believe that that significance will grow. As your significance grows so will the potential remuneration. Nor do I doubt for a moment that there are enough people willing to pay a few dollars to adequately defray the costs of such an endeavor, I may well be one of them. However, there is a risk/reward analysis to the idea that what you are essentially risking is a slice of your free time and aspects of your privacy (the financial costs of recording things off of a cell phone or Flip cam are pretty low, I do it myself), the rewards are the affection of your existing fan base as well as the potential to grow that fan base and have a sizable percentage of that group willing to make purchases of your cultural products: books, concert tickets, cds, hey maybe even beer, a dvd about making beer. By charging a fee to access these vlogs, streams, what have you, you set a bar to entry for new fans and possibly generate the tiniest resentment in your existing fan base. It may not be much, but spread out over large numbers of people could amortize into something more significant. Remember, your potential audience online is 1 billion people and growing.
But I don't want anything negative to be the take away message if you even read this. The really important part of what I have to say is that you are engaging and likable. I would watch you read from the Monster Manual. Everything else is just details.

I made a stupid cellphone video that was actually a live stream tour on my Ustream channel of my messy office. Then I read a short story. Yaaaaay! The stream was broken once when Paul called me (way to steal focus, Paul!), so there are two videos: If you watched it (live or recorded, pleas...

My nephew, whose life I have been more deeply involved in than your average uncle, as his father (my brother) died shortly after he was born has recently turned 19. He's bigger than I was at 19. He's cooler than I was at 19. And in those rare moments of being honest with myself that plague me at 2 in the morning, he's much better looking than I was at 19. He's doing the perfectly normal thing of pushing away from the male figures in his life, ever so slightly, so that he can establish himself as his own man.
I live in a state of absolute terror any time I dwell on the subject of his looming 20's and upcoming college years. There are going to be ferocious women, ludicrous parties and endless miles of roads begging for ill advised road trips.
I can only hope he gets away with twice as much as I did, and doesn't even attempt half of it.

While I was digging through my blog archives yesterday for stories to tell at last night's Wil Wheaton vs. Paul and Storm show at Largo*, I found this post I wrote in September of 2009. I like it, and felt that it was worth reposting: ...the irrational immortality of youth I didn't have to look...

Though I know you're a man with no shortage of projects and no great extent of free time, I strongly recommend you dive into the Game of Thrones series like your trying to level your new fav alt to the cap before the expansion release. Long story short I managed to get through the entire series in a little under three weeks as the rest of my time was spent applying for jobs just after I arrived to Cali. Not only as a writer, but as someone who was involved world building project (weren't you in a tv show in the 90's?) Martin's Uber-epic is as dense, rich, shocking and engaging as anything I've ever read. Of course, now I know how the next five years of the tv show will go and I'll have to find a reason to keep watching.
http://2media.nowpublic.net/images//0c/9b/0c9bf7edd25d12bc2fa1d96bf3411f1d.jpg
yeah that'll probably work

When I was reading back through my archives in preparation for Wil Wheaton versus Paul and Storm last week, I thought, more than once, "I really need to write more." Each time, though, my calendar grabbed focus and shouted at me like Jules in Pulp Fiction until I begged it to stop. I miss writin...

A lot of you know that I absolutely love Jenny Lawson, The Bloggess. I love her so much, I gave her a picture of me collating paper to send to PR idiots who spam her with stupid product pitches. Jenny makes me furiously happy, so when I read on her blog last night that a PR douchebag called her...

Actually that picture of you collating papers has made me think rather deeply about my paper collating needs.
Somewhere under the kindergarten style lunch plate are my YouTube view counts and most recent invoices for home inspections.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66617965@N07/6221527407/
I’m not bad at collating other people’s papers, as the three month collection of mail for people who aren’t me that has shown up in my mailbox indicates. That and I’m also neurotically afraid of throwing it out.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66617965@N07/6222047946/
But again as you can tell from the books I’m not currently reading, I either care about things that are within arm’s reach or aren’t.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66617965@N07/6221527429/
When I contrast this with your composure, even elegance, as you collate an expertly assembled number of papers in a manner that seems almost preternaturally perfect in how their edges line up…I…I am filled with shame.
I know this deep seated inadequacy within me can only be solved by a celebrity endorsed product, and of all the many patriotic Americans I’ve seen collating papers, no one else does so with your acumen.
Help me Wil Wheaton. You’re my only hope. Credit card information to follow.

A lot of you know that I absolutely love Jenny Lawson, The Bloggess. I love her so much, I gave her a picture of me collating paper to send to PR idiots who spam her with stupid product pitches. Jenny makes me furiously happy, so when I read on her blog last night that a PR douchebag called her...

When I still worked with food I coveted the idea of owning the first Puka Dog on the mainland.
Although two words, dude: Hawaiian Shirt
Regardless, there's a sense of peace and zen about you in that photo which you don't always see in your other stuff. I feel privileged to see it here and sincerely thank you for sharing it with us.
btw if I can find a party (since I know no one in LA) I'm going to go as Fox for Halloween. I'm growing a beard for it and everything. Now if I can just figure out how to attach a bug to my neck, I'll be set.

I'm not quite dead! I just took a vacation that looked something like this: Click to embiggen at Imgur, and to see a few other pictures from our trip. It was kind of a big deal for us, because it's the first non-working, non-kid-having vacation Anne and I have taken since we were dating almo...

I think a lot of porters and stouts don't show much of a head. There's that magic that a correctly poured Guinness will do, but I used to drink a lot of Sheaf Stout, and that never had much of a head.
To an extent I think you want it that way a little bit. The viscosity hangs on to the bubbles, and moderates the body on the tongue. Though I drink them, far too often, there's something about fizzy pilsners that don't do it for me. It's like you can't decide if you're really a drinker of beer, or a kid who wants a soda with his hot dog that has the added benefit of making you feel more attractive and intelligent.
I'm sure you know this, but the original beers were from Egypt, probably also the source of the world's first breads. Kinda makes you rethink that whole low-carb thing, huh? Anyway, those beers were more of a thickened cold soup, the alcohol content improved their shelf life. There have also been discovered very thin clay and stone trays, which if filled with water and exposed to the temperature differential of the haze free night sky of the desert would probably have made ice, and provided all those pyramid builders with a frosty breakfast beer.
and btw I damn near cried when Fox walks off without quoting anything. Damn near cried.
*hic*

Monday night, I opened a bottle of the first porter I brewed. I took a picture for the Internets that looks something like this: (click image to embiggen at Imgur) It turned out much better than I expected, considering there was a near disaster when I brewed it. Read on if you want to hear a s...

Wil, now that you have a little free time, I really think you should consider doing The Kevin Pollack Chat Show. He really does pretty excellent museum pieces that are hours long. I suppose that last sounded ominous which is not the intent. What I mean is that you have all the time you want to talk about whatever, and have more than a little fun. You have been involved in projects with significance to entertainment history, and have an exciting career working more independently. Pollack would give you the chance to talk about all of that. It is an interview I would really, really like to see, and I hope you will give it some consideration.

That is one hell of a legacy and I congratulate you for it.
Fuck Trolldom.
People really were awful to you back in the day, and I want you to know I was never in that camp. Between us, I was positive there was going to be a spin-off from Wesley going off with the warp guy dude. I thought for sure they'd use it in one of the movies.
And hey, maybe with the reboot, maybe Wesley learned to cross parallel universes too. Shit I think that would kick ass. Seriously? "Wes" fucking "Crusher"? With a fucking beard? All bad ass and shit? Fuck yeah!
What I can tell you is that I've taken you on as a bit of a role model. Now I just need to figure out how to become a child star in my forties.
The best is yet to come. Pretty sure of that.
For you, I mean. Well, maybe me too. I'll take a few more inspirational cues from you and see what happens.
Honestly, I feel an idiot for deciding I was too cool for D & D now.

So, while I'm putting together the last few things I need to take to PAX, I realized I forgot to mention something: ten years ago yesterday, I started my blog at WWdN*. Ten years ago today, Metafilter declared that it was "lame,"** and most of the Internet was really shitty to me about the whole...

It's raining in Vancouver. Little rivulets of water are running down the window, as low clouds slowly move across downtown, swallowing up the tops of buildings as they roll by. I have a late call today. I'm in one scene, and then I'm off until next Monday. Tomorrow morning, I'm going home to get...

It's either Gibson, Sterling or Stephenson (Snow Crash maybe), who talks about the death of the handshake and the sordid pathology of the terrible things that have happened as a result in whichever alternate universe I'm trying to refer to.
The handshake actually arose from when "nobles" (ahem) from opposing sides would meet to parley on the battlefield and discuss possible terms. To be assured of safety, at a signal, each noble would reach out and clasp the palms of their weapons hands (the "right" hand) in order to prevent their opponent from wielding a large blade. So you see it's really not a very friendly thing to do at all.
Problems did persist however, as a free hand remained, and why it is sometimes considered a sign of deeper friendship to shake not only with the right palms clasped, but to reach out and grasp the forearm with the left. Otherwise the left hand, sometimes referred to as the "dexter sinister", could hold a smaller blade which could be used to "stab someone in the back" or cut their throat. Eventually it became quite fashionable, if not indeed necessary, to wear a strip of leather or scaled cloth elaborately knotted close to the jugular artery.
Today we call them "neckties".

It's raining in Vancouver. Little rivulets of water are running down the window, as low clouds slowly move across downtown, swallowing up the tops of buildings as they roll by. I have a late call today. I'm in one scene, and then I'm off until next Monday. Tomorrow morning, I'm going home to get...

My friend Joel and I got excited and made a thing. We announced it last night, and in about 12 hours, it's become more popular than either of us expected, so this seemed like a good time to revisit Getting Excited And Making Things. I don't know how many of you have been reading my lame blog lo...

That was a great video, and perfect to the issue at hand. Thanks a lot David. Ira Glass had another piece about the time he went to go interview the cast of MASH, and what an epic fail it was.
The thing about my cooking video was that every time I made a gourmet meal I had to buy, well, gourmet ingredients. I could barely afford to eat more than one hot pocket at a time and there I am buying a duck and asking the butcher if he can get me caul fat so I can make terrines. That limited me to making a video at most about every two weeks.
The big realization was that what actually kept me going wasn't actually the food or the cooking, but the commentary I made while I was doing it. So I wondered, and am now exploring, whether I can do something that is pretty strictly commentary. And I don't need to go shopping! I've gotten a little feedback, which has been pleasant, and yes I am still dealing with the sense that "hmmm, not great". The important thing to me is that I am excersizing a muscle, which is still pretty weak, but getting stronger. I don't think I'm going to want to quit.
Thanks again, great reference.

My friend Joel and I got excited and made a thing. We announced it last night, and in about 12 hours, it's become more popular than either of us expected, so this seemed like a good time to revisit Getting Excited And Making Things. I don't know how many of you have been reading my lame blog lo...

I did a similar thing on my 34/35th birthday.
I was so bitter about turning 30 and basically didn't get over it for ten years.
Honestly though, when I hit 40, I had the exact opposite reaction. Suddenly my deterioration was a liberation. I was giddy as a schoolboy. Well, a 40 year old schoolboy.
So hit me up next year, and we'll cruise some strip clubs. I'll even spring for the Tucks medicated wipes.

During w00tstock last week, I mentioned that I was turning 38 this week. After the show, Anne told me that I was, in fact, turning 39. In the few seconds that it took me to do some math, I lost a year of my life. Apparently, this is the sort of thing that happens when you get to be my age, which...

Twenty-five years ago today, on my future wife's 17th birthday, a movie I did called Stand By Me was released. I didn't know it at the time, but it would define my childhood and change my life. Here are a few things I wanted to share, to mark the occasion. I talked to NPR last week about Stand B...

My friend Joel and I got excited and made a thing. We announced it last night, and in about 12 hours, it's become more popular than either of us expected, so this seemed like a good time to revisit Getting Excited And Making Things. I don't know how many of you have been reading my lame blog lo...

So io9 did this thing called the 10 Suckiest Fake Video Games That People Play In Science Fiction. Spoiler Alert: The Game from, uh, The Game is number one. 1) Suckdisk from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Actually, we don’t remember this game having an actual name on the show, but “suckdisk” f...

So io9 did this thing called the 10 Suckiest Fake Video Games That People Play In Science Fiction. Spoiler Alert: The Game from, uh, The Game is number one. 1) Suckdisk from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Actually, we don’t remember this game having an actual name on the show, but “suckdisk” f...

My friend Joel and I got excited and made a thing. We announced it last night, and in about 12 hours, it's become more popular than either of us expected, so this seemed like a good time to revisit Getting Excited And Making Things. I don't know how many of you have been reading my lame blog lo...

I'm kind of amazed because this speaks to something that has been animating me lately. I don't mean to be self promotional, but for about a year and a half I did a cooking show online. By my measures, it did okay, not great, but okay. That's not the problem. The problem is that I wasn't okay with okay. I got obsessed! Endless days of working the webs, trying desperately to find new "friends". It's a long story. Suffice it to say, I quit doing the cooking show. Not because I didn't enjoy it, but because too much of my enjoyment was tied up in an idea of success which I made sure to set out a little farther than the day before. Might be a formula to eventually be a winner, but it's definitely a formula for constantly feeling like a loser.
So I quit the cooking show.
Here's the thing. I still wanted to Get Excited And Make Stuff. I get off on that, and that's enough. I set uber low goals and I've just been vlogging about ...whatever. Today I published a vlog where I shaved my head. Yeah. I know. Hey, it beats Shane Dawson.
And um, gee, this is kind of awkward, but I shot a video today about my decision to shave off my mustache, and I talk about facial hair as a general phenomenon...and uh (I am so getting permabanned again...shit) I uh kinda mention you....?
actually I was going to call the video "will wheaton's whiskers"
if it's any consolation I'm totally gonna buy a coupla t-shirts.

My friend Joel and I got excited and made a thing. We announced it last night, and in about 12 hours, it's become more popular than either of us expected, so this seemed like a good time to revisit Getting Excited And Making Things. I don't know how many of you have been reading my lame blog lo...